The present invention relates to a mobile arm, chest, and shoulder exercise apparatus for training and conditioning participants in sports activities that call for highly developed hand speed and power. For example, it may be used in the sport of boxing to simultaneously improve punching power, punching endurance, and hand speed of boxers.
Hand speed, punching power, and endurance are three vital qualities a boxer must have to remain competitive. Various mobile devices worn by the user to improve one or more of these qualities have been proposed. Some of these devices are not adjustable to fit users of diverse body dimensions, and thus may be uncomfortable to wear and inefficient to use at extreme body sizes. The apparatus disclosed in Piscitelli U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,179, dated Jan 3, 1922, for example, includes an unadjustable back and shoulder harness. Similarly, the device disclosed in Berger U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,204, dated Feb. 24, 1987, is not adjustable.
Other proposals to improve boxing performance do not include a resistive force that is nearly constant throughout a predetermined range of motion. To provide relatively constant resistance, the effective length of the elastic cords must be increased whereby the change in length of the elastic cord during exercise is small compared to the unextended length of the elastic cord. The devices in Blake U.S. Pat. No. 1,432,013, dated Oct. 17, 1922; Bosch U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,707, dated Apr. 10, 1984; and in the above-referenced Piscitelli patent have elastic cords that are too short to provide a nearly constant resistive force.
Further, such proposals do not direct the force opposing motion of the arm toward the user's armpit. As seen in FIG. 1, in the prior art (see, for example, the devices in the Piscitelli, Blake, and Berger patents) the focus of the forces at natural exercise positions such as points D, E, and F is the back adjacent the shoulder blades at point Y. Resistance to motion of the arm thus comes from an unnatural location, reducing the comfort and efficiency of the exercise. In addition, an arm in position G is subjected to a force vector tending to direct the arm rearward (direction H).
As will be shown, the present invention focuses the forces in a more natural position under the shoulder joint adjacent the armpit. This is seen in FIG. 2 wherein point X is the focus of the forces at exercise positions A, B, and C. Further, the rearward force has been eliminated when the arm is in location I.
The proposals to improve boxing performance in the above-referenced art also do not include resistive forces that are adjustable without modifying or removing the components of the devices, nor do they include provisions for reducing resistance due to undesirable frictional forces in the device itself and those resulting from the elastic cords rubbing directly against the user.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile shoulder, arm, and chest exercise apparatus that obviates the problems of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an exercise harness that places the point of origin of all force vectors of the elastic cords under the shoulder joint adjacent the armpit.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel mobile upper body exercise harness that provides a nearly constant resistive force that may be adjusted by the user while wearing the harness without interchanging or detaching any parts of the harness.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a comfortable harness for routing the elastic cord so that the cord does not contact the user's torso or any nonmoving parts of the harness during normal exercise motions.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a mobile boxing exercise harness that is adjustable to conform to a wide variety of sizes of users' upper backs, chests, and sides.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.